WaveLab
4.0x
03/09/2002
·
New
features
o
Batch
processor: two new plugins: Fade-in and Fade-out. The Fade-out plugin is a
two-pass plugin because it needs to find the file length prior applying the
fade-out (since a plugin in a process chain can change the file length during
processing (eg. Resampler), a file length is “unknown” to a plugin before this
one actually gets and count the samples).
o
MP3:
WaveLab can now decode MP3-PRO files.
o
MP3:
Aside the creation of MP3 files using the Lame encoder, WaveLab can now create
Fraunhofer MP3 files and Fraunhofer MP3-PRO files. However, because of licensing
issues, a plugin needs to be purchased for this purpose (cf. Steinberg web
site). However, as a trial, you can perform up to 20 MP3 encodings and up to 20
MP3-PRO encodings. The latest Fraunhofer MP3 technology is used. Note: all MP3
players are not yet compatible with the MP3-PRO format (a typical case being the
audio played at the wrong pitch).
Concerning
the new MP3 encoding parameters:
o
In
the constant bit rate list, there are these options: mono, stereo, dual-mono, LC
stereo.
o
Dual-mono:
in this mode, both channels are independently coded; no profit is taken of a
potentially existing correlation between both channels. This mode is best suited
for signals where the channels are independent (e.g. a bilingual source: English
left, French right).
o
Stereo:
in this mode the encoder is allowed to make use of existing correlation between
the two channels (better compression ratio for stereo
recordings)
o
LC
stereo: the MP3 PRO format adds the so called Low-Complexity Stereo technique to
the plain MP3 format: this feature is designed to allow stereo coding even at
extremly low bitrates.
o
In
the advanced parameters, stereo coding area:
o
Intensity
Stereo: while at lower frequencies the spatial perception of the human auditory
system relies on magnitude and phase of both stereo signals, at higher
frequencies only the energy-time envelopes are evaluated. This forms the basis
for Intensity Stereo coding: at higher frequencies, only directional and
magnitude information is coded for each frequency band.
o
Mid/Side
stereo codding: the sum and the difference of the left and the right channel are
coded. Usually coding of the difference signal needs only a fraction of the bits
used on the sum channel so more than half the frame’s bits can be spent on the
sum channel.
o
Image
stereo narrowing: usually, you should allow the encoder to narrow the stereo
image for the lower bitrates. However, in special cases, it might be useful to
disallow narrowing the stereo image.
o
Audio
CD Burning : WaveLab now checks the presence of a blank CD in the burning
device, before attempting to render the montage to a temporary
file.
o
Audio
CD Report: there is a new preset with times relative to the very start of the CD
plus 150 frames.
o
Basic
Audio CD and Audio Montage: the “ASCII CD report” that was present in WaveLab
3.0 has been reintroduced. This function was replaced in WaveLab 4.0 by a more
sophisticated report (RTF output), but some users have expressed the wish to
still have a plain ASCII report. Of course, the WaveLab 4.0 Audio CD report
(RTF) has not been removed. “ASCII CD report” templates are stored at this
location: [WaveLab]/
Presets/AudioCdReport/CdCueSheetTemplates/.
o
Basic
Audio CD: longer comments can be set.
o
Audio
file comparer: when creating a delta file (differences), this file now has a 32
bit float resolution (24 bit before).
·
Main
bug fixes
o
Audio
CD Burning: updated CD engine. More reliability in contexts where conflicting
drivers can perturb drive communications (eg. Norton
AntiVirus).
o
The
new waveform display mode could generate an error message, in certain cases,
mainly under Windows 98/Me.
o
Audio
CD Burning with “Audio in pause” mode: in certain cases, a click could happen at
the very end of the CD.
o
Audio
CD Burning, write dialog: it could happen that the speed selection box had no
default selection. This could cause the burning to fail if not explicitly
selecting a speed.
o
Master
Section: the red light indicating that effects are active got switched off
whenever you changed the number of visible effect slots.
o
Audio
Montage, CD Tab: when clicking on the UPC/EAN display to edit the code value,
the display would not be updated after the editing.
o
Audio
Montage: in some cases, the paste function “Split/Insert & bind right clips”
would not move the right clips of the right amount.
o
Meters
(eg. FFT): sometimes, assigning a preset to a button would
fail.
o
UAD-1:
plugins can now be used simultaneously in montage clips and in the
MasterSection.
o
VSTi
plugins are now automatically ignored.
o
Audio
Montage: when moving a montage together with its relative audio files to another
folder, sometimes the audio files could not be found when reopening the montage
(the relative paths stored in the montage could be wrong).
o
Audio
Montage / Audio CD Report: the track Copy setting was inversed. A cross now
means like in the Montage Tab: “Copy protected” (the default
setting).
o
Dialogs
on second monitor: certain menus would not show up correctly when displayed on
the second monitor of a dual-monitor system.
o
VSTDynamics
plugin: the previous version caused an audio delay of a few
milliseconds.
22/07/2002
·
New
features
o
Updated
CD burning driver. Burnproof can now be selected in the preferences. The option
“CD-Eject on success” has now been moved in the general preferences
dialog.
o
Waveform
display: it is now possible to choose between speed and accuracy. Earlier
versions of WaveLab only used the speed version. The accuracy option prevents
any peak not to be displayed. This option remains fast, but the speed can
decrease when displaying huge audio files with a high zoom ratio (eg. displaying
a whole huge wave in the window scope). This setting can be modified in the
General Preferences, Display tab. The default is
“accuracy”.
o
MasterSection:
the number of visible slots can now be set from 1 to 8. This can help optimising
the screen space. Window layouts remember the slot number.
o
File
/ Open: If you know that a file format is not supported, select the new option
"Import special audio file". A dialog appears and lets you specify formatting
parameters. You can assign a file extension to the settings, and save presets.
If you select an unknown file from the standard open box, the “special audio
file format” box will show up too. This special file format feature is also
available in the batch processor, to convert multiple files in one go. This
could be used eg. to open SD2 files, if you can’t get these files to migrate
from a Mac system with their header info.
o
ToolsOne:
0.1 dB increment steps are now possible.
o
Audio
CD cue-sheets: the first line of the .cue file was a comment, and this was not
supported by some versions of Nero. No comment is now generated, for improved
compatibility.
o
Audio
Montage: a clip gain can now be changed by +/- 60 dB (in the clip list). It was
+/- 24 dB before.
o
Preferences,
File page: three new options:
1.
“Write
markers in WAV file header”. If this option is selected, marker information is
written in the .WAV file headers. This is useful if you need to open the WAV
files into another application that handles markers (eg. Macromedia director).
However, a marker change without an audio change will cause the entire audio
file to be rewritten (to rewrite the file header). Enabling this option does not
prevent WaveLab from writing .MRK files (the marker file format specific to
WaveLab). When opening WAV files, WaveLab will now also recognize marker
information.
2.
"Create
peak files when writing audio files” and “Delete peak files when closing audio
files”. These options are for people using WaveLab with thousands of small files
and that don’t want to clutter their disk with peak files (.gpk files). Changing
these options will slow file opening, however (as explained in the
dialog).
o
Smarter
copy of markers: when creating a new audio window from an audio selection, only
the markers strictly included in the selection are copied. The marker at the
very left and the marker at the very right, if any, are ignored. This is better
when copying a selection surrounded by a marker region.
o
Audio
Montage, CD Tab: new option to display the CD track times relatively to the
first track’s start rather than the montage’ start.
o
CD
Burning: in previous versions, the pause of the first track had to be at least 2
seconds (this is a red-book requirement). From this version, WaveLab now always
adds 2 seconds to the pause set for the first track. This procedure is performed
transparently, prior burning. These 2 seconds are required but are in fact not
heard when you play the CD. In most cases, the pause of the first track should
be 0 (as set by you). In the Audio Montage CD Tab, there is now an option to
automatically set the value to 0. Note: certain CD burners don’t like a pause
different than 0 or 1 second for the first track.
o
Preferences,
Audio Card tab, about the option “Cursor position correction”. In previous
versions, the unit was “miiliseconds”, while now the unit is “samples”. If you
had set a value different than 0, you might have to set it
again.
o
Audio
Montage CD Burning: it is no longer possible to burn a montage that refers to a
file with a sample rate different than 44100 Hz.
·
Main
bug fixes.
o
Corrected
a bug that caused a crash when WaveLab was still for a long time, after playing
back some audio with the level meter window opened.
o
Spectralizer:
could cause a small click when restarting playback.
o
VSTDynamics
plugin: when used for a clip, sometimes the section switches did not light
on.
o
Batch
processing: markers would move to the wrong position when resampling a
file.
o
Recording:
when selecting both options “Split mode” and “Add to Audio Montage”, the created
clip don’t get anymore a fade in/out (to keep the natural transition from clip
to clip).
o
Normalizer
dialog: the “Find peak” function did not report values above 0 dB (for 32 bit
float audio files).
o
ASIO:
when starting playback, the first few milliseconds of audio could sometimes be
skipped.
o
Recording:
when the file size would reach the maximum possible size (2 GB), a warning was
displayed, but the recording was lost. Now the recording is
kept.
o
CD-Text:
sometimes the text entered in the CD-Text dialog was lost.
o
File
sizes above 2 GB were not properly displayed in file
lists.
o
Crossfading
two mono files (Wave edit windows) could cause a crash.
16/05/2002
·
New
features
o
German
Online Help now available.
o
AutoSplit:
option to trim start/end according to existing markers. Example of use: remove
the useless audio data after a sample loop.
o
Auto-Split:
the functions “Split at silence” and “Cut Edges” have a new parameter:
“Automatic Level Detection”. This option reads the audio file to find the noise
floor, and later uses this value as an argument during the splitting process
itself. This option also makes the splitting algorithm almost independent from
the file level, ie. low-level audio files are handled as well as high-level
audio files.
o
Auto-Split:
the function “Split at beats” has a new parameter: “Maximize level before
analysis”. This option does not modify the audio material, but it
analyses a maximized form of the audio signal (peak at 0 dB) rather than the
audio signal in it’s normal level. This allows to handle equally well all audio
files, whatever their peak level. Eg. it’s a good option to handle low-level
audio files. This option makes the splitting process slower because the files
have to be read twice.
o
In
the general preferences, Editing tab, it is now possible to specify what the
pitch of the A3 key should be (this is normally 440 Hz). All frequency-to-note
conversions will be take into account this reference.
o
Preferences,
Audio Card tab: now there is a button to call the ASIO control
panel.
o
If
your computer doesn’t display millions of colors, you now have the option to
cancel the startup warning message.
o
Wave
window: the Key shortcut “Shift+C” extract the current selection to a new edit
Window. The Key shortcut “Shift+E” saves the current selection. The Key shortcut
“Shift+V” pastes the audio clipboard in Mix mode.
o
Preferences,
Display tab: it is now possible to display a sample range of up to 9999 sec when
opening an audio file.
o
Preferences,
Editing tab: it is now possible to set how VST knobs should be adjusted
(circular or linear mode). If this setting gets changed, it only takes effect
when opening new plugins.
o
The
Audio Card volume slider, present in WaveLab 3.0 and removed in version 4.0, has
been reintroduced. This one is only effective with MME/WDM drivers. Note: to
display this new icon, you must erase the file WaveLab\Presets\Misc\ToolBars.set
so as to reset your toolbar configuration.
o
Recording,
setting dialog: it is now possible to set whether you want Audio Monitoring or
not.
o
Jog
and Shuttle: when exiting this mode, the edit cursor now moves automatically to
the last played position. It is also now possible to insert markers at the
focused position (Insert key).
o
Master
Section : Global Bypass now also works for the post-master slot (9th
slot). This does not apply to the internal dither, though.
o
Recording:
clicking on the “Discard” button now asks for a
confirmation.
o
AIFF
32 bit float files are now supported.
o
Audio
Montage; the CD Tab is not disabled anymore if the Montage’s sample rate is not
44100 Hz. E.g. this allows you to resample/render a 48000 Hz montage to a
CD-image with a cue-sheet, or to a Basic Audio CD.
o
Backup
Plan / ISO-Images: no more “OK” message is displayed after saving an ISO Image.
This is useful if you want to prepare overnight a huge backup by generating a
sequence of ISO images (archive spanned over several CDs).
o
Master
Section: the “active” buttons now have a more contrasted
color.
o
Audio
Montage: in the Clip tab, there is a new function to rename a group of clips
(name + increment number)
o
Audio
Montage: in the Clip tab, there is a new function to align clips on a
track.
o
Audio
Montage: the function “Render selected clips as independent files“ now lets you
select the destination folder.
o
Monitor
Window: it is now possible to show and hide automatically the Monitor window
when a background task is executed/finished. This is the case, for instance,
when “Background saving” is activated in the preferences (a new feature of
WaveLab 4.0). To toggle this new Monitor option, use the menu View / Specialized
Windows.
o
CD
burners: speed above 32x can now be selected for Audio CD
burning.
o
MP3
Encoding: it is now possible to encode files with a sample rate as low as 8 kHz.
It is also now possible to select a mono output even if the source file to
encode is stereo.
o
When
entering an UPC code, if only 12 digits are entered (US format), then a 0 will
automatically be inserted at the beginning to be compatible with the EAN format
(13 digits). Moreover, it is now possible to edit the UPC/EAN code without
opening the CD Wizard dialog: simply click on the UPC/EAN text box in the menu
bar (CD Tab of the Audio Montage).
o
Batch
processor: it is now possible to disable the creation of peak files (.gpk
files). This is done in the batch option menu.
·
Main
bug fixes.
o
Q
plugin: too much computer power was used when processing digital
silence.
o
SD2
stereo files were not saved correctly.
o
Label
Designer: fixed bug with the function “Update from Audio
Montage”
o
When
calling the batch processor from the MasterSection, the internal dither plugin
is not inserted anymore in the plugin chain if not
activated.
o
Custom
key commands for Master Section presets did not work.
o
The
Broadcast Reference Time (File attributes) was not properly
saved.
o
The
system report indicated “Windows 2000” while executed on a “Windows XP”
system.
o
When
doing “Save as .wav” for a MP3 file, the MP3 encoding dialog was displayed
uselessly.
o
MP3
encoding dialog: to make it clearer, the MP3 option “Allow intensity coding” has
been renamed "joint stereo".
o
The
Return key now works again in the Wave marker dialog.
o
Audio
Montage: when playback occurred, it was not possible to insert more than one
marker using the marker buttons.
o
NaturalVerb:
the parameter “Decay” was mistakenly printed “Delay”.
o
NaturalVerb:
when restarting playback, a short and low-level part of the recently played
samples could be heard.
o
ASIO:
recording and Live Input would not work on channels other than 1 and
2.
o
In
some context menus, using the right mouse button could not be used to select
entries.
o
FFT
analyser: it was often not possible to modify the frequency scale
range.
o
ASIO
Recording: monitoring a mono signal could create some noise on the right
channel.
o
Master
Section Presets: the position of the dither plugin (eg. UV22) was not saved with
the presets.
o
When
saving an Audio file, a positive answer to the question “Do you want to make a
backup” had no effect.
o
Master
Section, Rendering dialog: with the option “Create specific file”, the file
selector box always defaulted to MP3 files.
o
Renaming
items in certain tree and list views would now allow to input the C and W
letters.
o
Master
Section Leveler plugin: it was not possible to edit the right channel level with
the keyboard.
o
A
few help buttons were not linked to the online help.
o
AudioMontage:
when burning in mode “Audio in pause”, clips fully contained inside the first
pause range were ignored.
o
Windows
Layout (menu View): some windows, like Wave and Montage, were excluded by
mistake.
o
The
inner diameter for a CD label can now be as small as 2
centimeters.
o
Some
AutoSplit minor problems
o
AudioMontage:
fix for a problem concerning clip level editing
o
Audio
file “Save as”: the last used format (eg. WAV, AIFF), etc) is now remembered
from call to call.
o
Sample
rate conversion from the menu did not shift the file
markers.
o
AIFF
files with a sample rate of 192000 kHz were opened as 44100 Hz
files.
o
Some
online help topics have been corrected.
o
Menus
were not displayed correctly when using inverted color settings in Windows’
display preferences (Control Panel).
o
Space
characters in ISRC codes were not removed before burning.
o
When
playing back an audio file, the cursor was not properly displayed in the
overview pane of the window, in certain cases.
o
Basic
Audio CDs could loose the path of mp3 files.
o
There
could be 1 or 2 hours of difference with reality when displaying a file time
(file browser windows).
o
Record
dialog: the automatic file number is now saved/restored when closing/reopening
the dialog.
o
Audio
Montage: with the time-code format set to 29.97 NDF, it was not possible to set
correctly the time ruler offset.
o
PAF
dual-mono files had a bad window title.
o
MP3
decoding: WaveLab is more tolerant to mp3 files with a mistake in their
header.
o
Wave
edit window: pasting a selection that included mute markers did not activate
these markers.
o
Audio
Montage, ducking options: the parameter “Balance clip fade-out” was
ignored.
o
Meters:
sometimes the meters could stop while playback.
o
Converting
a Basic Audio CD as an Audio Montage could cause a crash if the Basic Audio CD
contained a mono audio file.
o
The
Master Section Key command for “Reset to 0 dB” would set the level to 6.5 dB
instead.
o
MP2
files could not be open with the Qdesign codec, as it was with WaveLab
3.0.
o
Data
CD burning: on certain computer setups, it was not possible to start
burning.
o
Batch
Processing: when processing thousands of files in a row, the speed was much
decreasing after processing a few thousand files.
o
Meter
windows were not restored when opening WaveLab from Cubase or by double-clicking
an associated file (eg. audio file).
o
Label
Editor: a problem with fonts and print preview has been
fixed.
o
Some
other bugs, more difficult to explained, were fixed too.
18/02/2002
·
When
closing a modified audio window and choosing to save the file, the file was
sometimes not saved.
·
A
bug concerning automatic colors for audio windows.
·
Certain
MP3 files could not be open.
·
A
graphic compatibility issue with certain older WaveLab
plugins.
13/02/2002
·
Updated
Online Help.
·
Support
for additional CDR drives
·
Bug
fixes:
o
The
Live Input could crash.
o
Grabbing
audio CD tracks in mono and converting to an Audio Montage did not work
properly.